


Benevolence

by mirrankei



Category: Tales of Crestoria, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Implied Vicious/Aegis maybe, Nakama, Seraph AU, Shepard AU, Team as Family, Zestiria AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26312845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirrankei/pseuds/mirrankei
Summary: ...And left there is Kanata, on the ground, blood on his hands and chest and face and the knife, and his father's body staring wide-eyed at the ground as the flames seem to reach out to him from the building and consume him.It's a stranger that approaches from behind, a cool breeze accompanying his presence, taking in the burning building, the corpse, Kanata covered in blood."Huh," he says, and turns from the blaze to the boy. "Hey, you. Wanna be my Squire?"~~Zestiria Fusion AU.
Relationships: Kanata Hjuger/Misella, Vicious & Kanata Hjuger, Vicious & Kanata Hjuger & Misella & Yuna Azetta & Aegis Alver
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Benevolence

Kanata doesn't necessarily believe in seraphim, but he thinks he might believe in ghosts. 

He's well-liked in the village, small and in the middle of nowhere, too far for much of the church's teachings to have more than passing respect. It's a combination of his fathers’ influence and Kanata's own natural friendliness, but for all that the village likes him, he doesn't really have any friends, his dad often traveling to find homes for the other children, and the orphans themselves giving him polite acceptance at best but a lot of distance overall. He cooks for himself, and for the children, and he trains with Master Cress when he's available and by himself against trees and polwigles when he's not. 

Sometimes, when he comes back home, the floors have been swept and his clothes folded, the water for his bath already heated. He sets the table for two, just in case, and thanks whoever it is, because dead or not, when someone does something for you, you thank them. 

It happens in the orphanage too, strange patterns in the dust that might be footprints, children tucked in when there's no caretaker that night, childish stories that if you pick flowers for the bedrooms you'll be blessed, but if you pick too many you'll be cursed (there isn't agreement on how many is too many, so most children avoid the flowers entirely; you absolutely do not want to trample them). 

Nisha only picked one flower, the night after Kanata's father returned with the good news. Nash destroyed the whole flowerbed in a fit of rage. 

"Can't they be adopted together?" Kanata asks, following him down the road from their house to the orphanage. He's been told, as usual, to stay in the house, but he likes those kids, even though Nash always argues with him and picks fights in the town. "They're siblings."

His father sighs as they reach the front doors. "It's more complicated than that," he says, pushing them open. "I suppose, when I get back, you're old enough to start learning the ins and outs of the business."

Kanata thinks 'business' is a cold way to put it, but he supposes you have to put some distance between you and the kids or else you're just gonna get attached and want to keep all of them. He knows he would. 

He goes to the cupboard and gets the small pack of belongings he's directed to, while his father takes Nisha's new clothes up to her room so she can get changed. Speaking of cold, the orphanage is chilly in a way it normally isn't; the old building, like his house, somehow tends to stay warm even in winter. 

A lot happens at once. Nisha comes down in her new dress, a flower grasped tightly between her tiny hands. Kanata's dad gently ushers her outside, but he's tackled, from absolutely out of nowhere, by a blur that is Nash, his hands around, of all things, a knife. 

Kanata is faster, and grabs the knife and Nash's hands, holding him back as the boy screams nonsense at his father, and Nisha starts to run but his father holds her back with one hand, using the other to violently backhand the little boy out of Kanata's startled grasp and onto the floor, bleeding. 

"See Kanata, I'd love to get this little brat out of my hair, but the clients only paid for one and I'm sure as hell not giving away product for free." 

Kanata gapes at him, not understanding. The air is hot around him, the knife heavy in his hands.

His father tucks Nisha, still screaming and crying, flower discarded on the ground, under his arm, and spits at Nash, saying something about meat. 

It's not much later when the village awakens to the sound of someone ringing the alarm bell, the orphans pulled out of the inferno that was their home by a limping, sniffling Nash who is now burned all over his arms and legs. They run away, to the waiting arms of the horrified village, and left there is Kanata, on the ground, blood on his hands and chest and face and the knife, and his father's body staring wide-eyed at the ground as the flames seem to reach out to him from the building and consume him. 

It's a stranger that approaches from behind, a cool breeze accompanying his presence, taking in the burning building, the corpse, Kanata covered in blood. 

"Huh," he says, and turns from the blaze to the boy. "Hey, you. Wanna be my Squire?"

~~

He isn't sure how they got away. He remembers screaming, shouting about what Kanata has done, murdering his own father, destroying his family's livelihood and charity to hide the crime, and the man, the stranger, laughing wildly as the forest becomes a blur, wind all around them and the fire far behind. 

At some point they stop, and the man only gives him a cursory glance for injuries before throwing him a cloth and telling him to clean up. The man starts setting up a camp with practiced and careless ease.

Kanata wipes the blood and ash from his face and hands, staring blankly at the soon-to-be fire pit. He wants to explain what happened, what his father had done, had _been doing_ Kanata's whole life without him ever knowing, to beg forgiveness and to go home, but he doesn't, he sits in silence until the stranger flops down beside him, taking a swig from a skein before passing it to Kanata.

It's not water. Kanata chokes as it burns his throat and the man laughs at him.

"That woke you up," he says, grinning. He pulls a strip of dried meat out of nowhere and tosses it to him. "Eat."

Kanata holds the jerky and stares at it blankly. He looks up at the unlit fire, and then at the smirking stranger. "Who are you?"

"Vicious," he says. "Eat. If yer gonna be my Squire you need to keep yer strength up. You too," he adds, to nobody, looking at a spot somewhere behind and above Kanata's shoulder. He waves another strip of jerky like a taunt. "After you start up the fire, that is."

Kanata looks around, confused, then nearly falls over when the pile of sticks suddenly ignites all at once, as if it had been going for hours.

"Nice," Vicious says, and tosses the meat into the air. Kanata doesn't hear it hit the ground. "And your name, kid?"

"Kanata," says Kanata, automatically. "Nice to meet you."

Vicious snorts and tears off a piece of his own jerky. "Sure it is. You're honored."

Kanata doesn't know how to answer that, so he nibbles on the jerky. It isn't seasoned much.

"What's a Squire?"

~~

Vicious is apparently the Shepard, which is baffling and against what (admittedly little) Kanata knows about the church's teachings. The Shepard is supposed to be a benevolent, guiding force for the spirits and humans all over the world, bringing peace and eliminating darkness and war. 

"Yup, that's me," Vicious confirms, his hands behind his head as he walks. He looks, in Kanata's opinion, sort of the opposite of 'holy.' 

"Then... why me? Why make me a Squire? You don't even know me."

Vicious shrugs, as he does for a lot of Kanata's questions. Not to show that he doesn't know, but that he doesn't care. "You don't hafta. You can run on back to your village, let them burn you at the stake for murder and arson."

Kanata stares at his boots. He can still see, in his mind, the horrified, angry looks of the people he grew up with, pointing and shouting and waving their makeshift weapons. Even Master Cress, shocked but with his sword drawn, ready to cut down the threat before Vicious had somehow swept him away. 

"Or I can drop you off at the next town, you make a new life, do whatever you want. I don't really care." He grins crookedly at Kanata, lowering his hands and slouching down so they're nearly eye level. "Or, you can come with me, and save the world."

Kanata's hand clenches. "How do I become your Squire?"

Vicious laughs and marches on ahead, Kanata scurrying behind him. "We make a pact. I put some of my aura and power into you. Boom. Squire."

The air is suddenly swelteringly hot. Kanata swears he can see the grass between them dry and wither, tiny sparks and ash floating into the air. 

"And," Vicious continues, apparently not bothered as he grins at an empty space to Kanata's side, "you'll be able to see seraphim."

The temperature returns to normal as suddenly as the heat began. Kanata swallows, looking at the empty spot, then around at the forest around them. It's empty, just the two of them and some birds up in the trees somewhere.

"I can see seraphs?"

"Seraph _im_ ," Vicious corrects quickly, as if to interrupt someone, then laughs like he's sharing an inside joke. "Yup. With your Resonance, should be easy. Couple hours and you'll be able to see all the lovely ladies throwing themselves at you."

Kanata jumps, looking around himself wildly. Vicious laughs, and keeps walking.

~~

They reach a town before evening, and Vicious does the pact right before bed, saying that 'resonation makes me sleepy', whatever that means. He, as Kanata is learning is the norm, doesn't explain what he does for the pact, but it's quick and kind of apathetic and very casual. He gives Kanata a name - a new, 'true' name - but doesn't call him by it when they're done, and immediately turns out the lamps, rolls over, and goes to sleep. 

When Kanata awakens in the morning, there is a girl staring intently at his face. He yelps and scrambles backwards in the blankets, and she startles as well, stepping back and putting her hands to her face.

"Oh!" she says, breathlessly. "You can see me!"

"You're," Kanata says, his heart hammering at his ribs as he tries to catch his breath. The girl looks solid, and human, with fluffy pink hair, a flower tucked behind her ear, and a white dress. He calms himself before speaking. "You must be the gho- the seraph from the orphanage."

The girl looks delighted but before she can speak, Vicious' voice cuts in. "Yup, Kanata, meet Misella, your stalker."

"I am not a stalker." The cold steel in Misella's voice, on her face, is startlingly different from her previous demeanor. She glares at Vicious, who is lounging in the windowsill behind Kanata's bed. "And I can introduce myself."

"Um," says Kanata, hoping to break the tension that is clearly building between his two new friends, "Thank you, Misella. For helping out. With the stuff at my house and the orphanage....and the orphanage...." He trails off. He knows he didn't start that fire, and with what little he knows about seraphim, some pieces are quickly falling into place.

"Oh," says Misella, her face flushing as she turns away and plays with her hair. "Of course, I tried to help out wherever I could."

"And I am Yuna!" A new voice comes out of nowhere - Kanata swears there was only the three of them in the room - and a woman jumps on the bed to take a seat beside him, slinging her arm over his shoulders. "Welcome, Kananna, to our 'umble flock. It vill be nice to 'ave zomeone new to talk to."

"Um, nice to meet you?" says Kanata, shaking her offered hand. He's a little overwhelmed. She is solidly leaning against his shoulder, her hand firm around his, very much There when she very much Wasn't before. 

"Alright, now that we all know each other, let's get going," Vicious says, rocking to his feet. He throws Kanata's jacket and cape at him. "Downstairs in five or I'm leaving without ya."

"That sounds wonderful, thank you, go ahead and leave," Misella says to Vicious' back, as Kanata scrambles out of the tangled blankets and into his clothes. 

When Kanata bursts out the front of the inn (without even having time to fix his hair!), Vicious is leaning against the wall. He yawns, not rushed in the slightest, and shoves something into Kanata's arms. "Happy Squire-ing, Squire. Got you a proper weapon so you can actually do something useful. Let's get going."

~~

The sword is a lot heavier than his training swords, but it's perfect and amazing. Clearing their path of monsters, with Misella's flames backing him up, he feels powerful like he never has before. Misella claps delightedly and praises him, while Vicious rolls his eyes, walking behind them. 

The Shepard is halfheartedly listening to Yuna beside him as she pores over a map. Her voice is strangely musical, her accent putting emphasis on strange syllables. She calls him 'Kananna", which is weird but kind of endearing, and "Vi- _see_ -us" and " _Mee_ -sell-ah". She seems to know what she's doing, and Kanata follows her called directions as they continue through the forest path.

Until Vicious grabs the map from her and stalks ahead. 

"Forget it," he says. "That'll take too long. We're cutting through."

"Vicious," Yuna scolds.

"What, I got a brand new Squire and a new seraph, we can take the fast route easy."

"I am not your seraph," Misella snaps. "I am only here to protect Kanata, and that includes from you."

"But he's my Squire, which means you're basically working for me too."

Misella glowers, the plants charring around her. Yuna just sighs and follows Vicious into the dense trees, off the path, and Kanata jogs to keep up. 

There are a lot more monsters in the forest, and although the four of them can dispatch them pretty easily, the sheer number of encounters is making Kanata exhausted. It's some hours before Vicious finally comes to a stop, his stamina apparently unlimited, and tuts at the forced end of the road.

"You see?" Yuna says, gesturing at the huge, roaring river in front of them. "Zis is why we go around. To ze bridge. Now zat we are 'ere, we 'ave added hours to ze journey."

"Don't complain, you don't even have to walk," Vicious says, stretching his arms over his head. He glances at Kanata, who is staring devastated at the river, not wanting to backtrack and go around again. "It's faster to go across here."

Yuna looks like she wants to argue, but instead stops and rolls her eyes. "Ah. I see." And she disappears.

Kanata wants to know how she is doing that but Misella is staring at the water in distaste. "You expect us to swim?"

Before Vicious can answer, an angry shout bellows from the forest behind them. 

" _VICIOUS_!"

A wave of icicles crash out of the trees and straight at Vicious, who simply takes a few steps to avoid each one. Misella has already thrown herself in front of Kanata, who has also drawn his sword.

A man - a seraph, Kanata supposes, since humans can't pull ice out of nowhere as far as he knows - stomps out of the woods. His face is twisted with rage, white hair tangled with leaves and twigs. He's carrying a large pack, which he hurls at Vicious, and a spear, which he swings around to take the Shepard's head off.

"Finally, I've caught up to you!" 

"Aegis!" Vicious says happily, dodging his blows. "Perfect timing."

And then he says _something_ and the man - seraph - Aegis? - disappears along with his weapon.

"What was that?!" Kanata says, whirling around to face Vicious and stopping short.

Vicious is... different. His clothes have changed, white and blue where they were black and red, and his hair is also white, and longer, flowing behind him, a huge longbow grasped in his hand.

His other hand is behind his neck, as it often is, and he stretches and cracks his neck. When he opens his eyes, they're a startling, glowing blue, and he grins. 

"Nothin' to worry about," he says, and even his voice seems different, like there's an echo, or someone else speaking at the same time.

"What-" Misella says, quietly. She looks shaken. "What did you do to him?"

"Hm? We armatized." Vicious grins over his shoulder at them as he turns to the river and holds out his hand. 

The river... stops. Instead of flowing down its path, the current comes to a halt at Vicious' hand, the rest of the water continuing until it drains away and there's just the wet ground, a dip in the earth that they can easily walk across.

Vicious does just that, scooping up the abandoned pack and sauntering through the riverbed by the wall of water. "Hurry up, if you take too long I'm gonna end up causing a flood."

Kanata and Misella scurry after him, Misella pausing to look distrustfully at the wall of water before running ahead to get out of its reach. Vicious lets her pass him, unfazed by the river and seemingly amused by his Squire's reactions.

"What was that?" Kanata repeats, as they reach the opposite shore. 

Vicious shrugs, and suddenly the water roars back into life, filling the riverbed as if there had been no interruption. "Armatization. When a seraph and a human," he pauses suddenly to leer at Misella, "Combine their powers and become one."

"Zat is an oversimplification," Yuna says, suddenly there again, sitting on a rock. 

"And why do you have to make it sound _dirty_?" another voice says, and when they turn back to Vicious he's back to normal, black and red and smirking, and Aegis the seraph is standing next to him, no longer mad with rage but clearly cross. "The armatus is a noble weapon, created by the first Shepard to join seraph and human to battle malevolence and manipulate elements to-"

"Zat is how ze church puts it," Yuna interrupts. "It vas actually created by humans to enslave ze malaks - now known as seraphim - and only became vat it is today from ze tireless efforts of seraphim outzide ze church-"

"I do not need a history lesson from you, Yuna, I am-"

"Kanata, this is Aegis, my Prime Lord. Aegis, while you were gone, I got me a Squire, just like you said."

"While I was gone?" Aegis says, indignant. "You left me behind after you made that whole scene about the Shepard Robes! It took days to catch your trail!"

"It's nice to meet you," Kanata says. Now that the fighting has changed to seemingly familiar bickering, he's not worried about the new seraph attacking. "Was it you that stopped the water? What's a Prime Lord?"

"I - it is nice to meet you as well," Aegis says, apparently as instinctively polite as Kanata, if not moreso. "It was _us_ that stopped the water, would, perhaps, be more accurate. In armatizing, the powers of both the Shepard and seraph are combined and amplified, allowing for such manipulation of nature. The Prime Lord is the first seraph contracted with the Shepard, through which contracts with other seraphim can be formed."

"It is a 'most noble' duty," Yuna chimes in. "Alzough, I would not vant it. Sub Lord is enough for me."

"Yes, well," Aegis says, eyeing Vicious, "being tethered to Vicious is certainly not an easy task."

"The Prime Lord makes contracts for me," Vicious chimes in, apparently willing to explain something for once. He leans over Aegis' shoulders, resting his arms on the annoyed seraph, his eyes gleaming as he looks at Kanata and Misella, "so that I can use the powers of other seraphs and armatize with them."

Misella seems to bristle at that, but Vicious continues like he doesn't notice. "And my Squires can armatize with them too."

The heat that had been building in the air drops, and Kanata steps forward eagerly. "I can do that too?! And Yuna, you can armatize? When can I try it?"

"Maybe once you get the hang of that sword instead of waving it around like an idiot," Vicious scoffs. He pushes off Aegis's shoulders and starts walking again. "Anyway, we need the next artifact before I'm gonna worry about that."

~~

The artifact - Divine Artifact, as Aegis and Yuna both keep correcting - is a sword. They find it days later, after fighting monster after monster after monster, and Kanata's own sword is a bit dinged up. He's gotten better at fighting with it though, the basics of Master Cress' training refined by Aegis' near constant corrections and insistence on sparring which, he's forced to admit, has helped a lot. 

Vicious swings the sword carelessly with one hand. He uses guns, most of the time, but Kanata's also seen him with Aegis' bow and Yuna's blade-wing-things, and Aegis has confessed he's not sure how much of the armatus' weapon expertise comes from himself, from Vicious, or from the Divine Artifacts themselves. 

"Alright, three outta four," Vicious says. He slashes the sword experimentally through the air. "Just need a fire seraph to go with it."

Kanata immediately tenses up, despite his exhaustion from the trial to get to the weapon. Aegis is asleep, resting after a bad hit in battle, apparently somewhere in Vicious' mind, or soul, or something. Aegis' water and (relatively) calm indifference to Misella's temper has thusfar been the only thing stopping her from barbecuing Vicious when he tries to rile her up. Kanata can kind of get between them, but he's exhausted and not standing near her, and Yuna has a tendency to - literally - fan the flames. He still doesn't understand why Misella hates Vicious so much, but it's clear she does, and she has no qualms against violence.

To his surprise, Misella approaches Vicious calmly. He stops swinging the sword, bringing its point down to rest on the ground between them.

Her eyes are still harsh and suspicious, as they always are toward Vicious but rarely towards anyone else and never towards Kanata. Her voice is low, a seething, reluctant hiss, that Kanata can't make out any words from.

_"I will not armatize with you. You will not use my power. I will not...ride within you, as you do with the others. I will accompany you only as long as Kanata does, you understand me?"_

"It's your decision, sweetcheeks," Vicious says, smiling as always.

Misella closes her eyes and puts her hand beside Vicious' on the hilt of the sword.

"Right, almost forgot, gotta get that contract first."

Aegis appears beside them, still looking tired. He glances at the two of them, sighs, and begins.

It's more formal than Kanata's pact was, which might be more Vicious' fault than anything. With Aegis taking the lead it seems more real, more official, and he's calm and efficient even though it takes longer than Kanata expected. He's drifting off a little by the end, and is startled when Misella speaks, loud enough for him to hear.

Vicious grins and lets go of the sword, leaving Misella holding it. 

Kanata can feel that something has changed, but he isn't sure what, the link from him to Vicious to Aegis to now Misella maybe too long and convoluted for him to feel her directly. 

Vicious has stepped down from their makeshift ceremony, his hands in his pockets, grinning at Kanata. "Well? Wanna do the honors?"

For a moment, Kanata has no idea what he's talking about. Then he scrambles to his feet and looks at Misella, who is clutching the sword to her chest, eyes wide and excited, a mirror of his. 

He fumbles over the word - over Misella's true name - but when he says it, and he can feel her pulling and he's pulling too, there's some kind of change, and light, and heat and then - 

\- there they are. 

The armatus feels both like him and her, and also like _them_ , a unified being. The sword is light in their hand, and sparks and flames float around them, a comforting heat. 

They collapse.

"Whoops," says Vicious, not particularly apologetic. "Mighta overdone it there."

He saunters to the fallen youths, separated again, and nudges Kanata with his boot. 

"You knew that would happen," Aegis accuses. Yuna titters agreement. "They were already exhausted, armatizing was obviously too much right now."

"Oh well, live and learn," Vicious says, uncaring. He swings Kanata onto his back and heads the way they came, towards the entrance of the ruins. "One of you grab my Sub Lord over there, she doesn't want to 'ride' with me."

Yuna is already gone, riding in Vicious before Aegis has a chance to sigh. He does so anyway, and scoops Misella up before hurrying after them.

~~

There's only one weapon left, the Divine Artifact of earth, and with it one more seraphic contract of the same element. Vicious does not, apparently, have any particular seraph in mind.

"Whatever, I'll find one," he says, yawning. Aegis looks peeved by the casual dismissal.

"And then what?" Kanata asks.

"Whaddya mean 'then what'?" Vicious mocks. "We do what we've been doin', but I got all the elements."

Aegis and Yuna also seem confused by Kanata's question. 

"But we haven't been doing anything?" he says, trying to elaborate. "We've just been traveling to find the Divine Artifact, right?"

"Kanata, what do you think the Divine Artifacts are for?" Aegis says.

"For armatizing, you told me that."

"Yes but... they're weapons. To fight."

"Who are we fighting?!"

Aegis gestures at the forest, frustrated. "The Hellions! Malevolence! Like we've been doing!"

"I didn't fight any-"

Vicious is nearly doubled over laughing. Misella looks annoyed at him, but also sort of amused and... pitying... at Kanata.

"Ve are purifying ze land of malevolenze," Yuna explains. "Ze monzters ve have had 'ou fight, zey are like us. Most humans cannot see zem."

"They- oh." Kanata looks down at his sword. There have been a lot of monsters they've killed, ones unlike anything he ever would have imagined at home.

"Hellions are drawn to and created from malevolence," Aegis explains. "Malevolence is created from and strengthened by negative emotions."

"It is, arguably, a natural phenomenon, just as becoming a dragon may be ze final part of ze lifecycle for us seraphim." Yuna adds. "Alzough in large amounts detrimental. Ze church Aegis is so fond of seeks to eliminate it." She waves off his interruption. "Vatever you believe, it needs to be controlled so zat it does not yield a Lord of Calamity."

Kanata looks at Vicious, whose appearance honestly fits the title "Lord of Calamity" a lot better than "Shepard". 

Vicious grins back. "Told you we were saving the world."

"The armatus and the Divine Artifacts are tools to aid the Shepard in his quest," Aegis goes on. "We are also responsible for quelling malevolence at its source, by making peace and helping among seraphim and humans alike."

"So, besides fighting monsters, we're just... helping people?" Kanata says, again raising his eyebrows at Vicious.

"Now you see why I need a Squire!" Vicious laughs. "Helping people ain't really my style. I'll take care of the Hellions, you can take care of the happy-friendly-good feelings stuff."

Kanata stares blankly at him. "I've been killing most of the monsters, too."

"It's good practice," Vicious says. "Anyway, now that we're done with the crash course on the _basic way the world works_ , let's get back to finding my last seraph."

"We're not your seraphs," Misella says, but she follows him anyway, beside Kanata as usual. 

"Seraph _im_ ," Yuna corrects.

"And what is your plan for that, oh great Shepard?" Aegis says. 

"Follow the malevolence and find someone interesting!" He says, falling behind to insert himself between Kanata and Misella and throw his arms over their shoulders. "Worked last time. Got me a two-for-one deal."

Kanata can feel his face turning red. Misella elbows Vicious in the stomach. Yuna and Aegis are arguing about something, and Vicious immediately joins in until all of them are yelling. 

Kanata feels warm like he hasn't in a long time, he realizes. Not from Misella's sparks, though she's joined in the conversation with occasional sharp comments at the others' expense. 

He thinks, maybe, despite being able to see seraphim now, he hadn't noticed the malevolence because he was so happy.

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this at 1 am and now here we are.


End file.
